The Importance Of Oral Language Skills

Many times whenever teachers think of oral language in the classroom, the believe it to be a bad thing, because for so long we believed that if you were talking then that meant that you weren’t learning. This could not be further from the truth, in fact oral language is the foundation for students learning. It is through Oral language that we learn important skills such as listening, expressive language, and vocabulary. We as teachers can help to support oral language in our classroom in many ways.

To understand the connection between oral language skills and early literacy abilities, it is important to have a proper understanding of both terms. Oral language is simply, “language that is spoken. [And it] comprises three domains: content, form, and use.” Early literacy abilities are those abilities that are formed during the “earliest period of learning about reading and writing.” This can be seen in their knowledge of print and sounds. This period will lead into the reading period that begins typically during the school years.

Starting with speaking skill, fluency is the main target of teaching speaking. According to Hughes

As communication is a key element in my field, the necessity for them to develop excellent Language skills is key, as it also requires preparation, as elements of clear enunciation, focusing and the design of presentations are usually present in most of the courses within this field.

SC4 Demonstrated high level written and verbal communication skills and high level interpersonal skills including a capacity to develop constructive relationships with students, parents and other staff.

Some experts say that the poor language skills is a reason some students are failing college. A student must be able to read, to write, to speak, and to listen effectively. Being ineffective in even one of these language abilities can lead to academic difficulty. All college students, no matter how bright are expected to improve their language skills exponentially. I’m not too worried about language in college, I got a 31 in reading on the ACT. But I will not make the mistake of underestimating college and I will use the internet and my peers for help when I’ve lost my way.

This artifact represents eleven methods helpful for developing student’s oral language skills. Components essential for developing language and literacy include practice speaking and writing formally, as well as reading and listening. Communication has five areas to oral language development including; vocabulary, syntax (grammar), morphological skills (meaning of words forms and parts), pragmatics (the social rules of communication), and phonological skills (rhymes and syllables). In this artifact I provide strategies for developing these skills emphasizing the need for students to talk more than the teacher, regardless of their skill level. Practice need not always be structured around a curriculum goal such as chemistry, it can be an activity that encourages an ELL student to tell about their favorite food, or their family, or a special tradition they have at home. Developing oral language is about having student practice. Having student’s write down their stories can help develop their literacy.

Hill, Peter. Oral language. In developing early literacy : assessment and teaching. South Yarra: Eleanor Curtain Publishing., 2012.

Through this week learning resources, I have learned that there are evidences that demonstrate that when a child has limited experiences he or she is more likely to have difficult comprehending what is read. It is why early childhood professionals affirm that oral language is the foundation for literacy development. Everything that children learn about speaking and listening they use for writing and reading and what they learn from writing and reading they use in listening and speaking. In other words, oral language and literacy develop simultaneously. When parents provide rich language and literacy reinforcement at home, children do better in school than those who do not. It is also known for early childhood professionals that for a child with limited experiences is more difficult comprehending what is read. For example, a child who has being exposed to many environments like a farm or like a museum will have more mentally engagement in classrooms activities about things he or she already know that children who have not had experience in those environments. Many researches showed that children that have not have a literacy development or an oral language development years before formal schooling, are less likely to be successful beginning readers, opening an achievement lag that might last through the primary grades. Some of the reasons why parents are not actively involved into their children’s educations are their socioeconomic or legal status. For example, in an immigrant family sometimes both parents have to work and sometimes they have to work two shifts. I have known families where children are the whole day in school and with nannies. Those children do not develop any skills that help them to succeed at the time of attending forming school.

In the Teaching Channel video about College Talk, the facilitating teacher Jinny Kim takes phrases that are daily language in the classroom and switches them from common language to a higher level of sophisticated language. In order for this to work, she takes a word and together with her students, creates synonym lists of higher-level words that can be exchanged for simplistic phrases. This strategy of implementing college talk into the elementary classroom has the potential to expand students’ vocabulary

He is both tired from jet lag, and he is irritated by the long waiting lines.

The focus on oral language especially, speaking and listening, in the NSW English Syllabus K-10 is created so that language learning is recursive and develops through our expansive contexts. The resources accompanying speaking and listening ensure students are using metalanguage, phonology, morphology and syntax.

Mrs. Moore has the children do group activities, partner activities, and use their words when something goes wrong, which are all ways to help develop communication, language, and speech skills. Parents can continue to help these skills develop at home by talking to their children, teaching them new words, and having them use their own words to ask for something. Overall, Addison 's communication, language, and speech skills are almost where they need to be and parents need to focus on her using her words when something goes wrong and having her use more complete sentences.

Since the time of Socrates, the pursuit of knowledge has been characterized by the skillful use of language and patterns of questioning to examine understanding and discover truth. Some twenty-four centuries later, language remains the primary medium and discourse the primary method of teaching and learning. While language is a valuable tool for exploration of most fields of study, the prevalence of oral communication in our lives often leads teachers and students to take language for granted. Educators would benefit from a more conscious understanding of the features and functions of oral communication in the classroom. Once we are made aware of the roles of

Nowadays, although teaching and learning English has constantly changed, the Audio-Lingual Method still plays a significant role in many English classes around the world. According to Larsen-Freeman (2000), the Audio-Lingual Method was developed from an interesting idea that behavioral psychology and linguistic conventions are closely related to each other. Thus, this method aims to enhance learners’ ability by overlearn and habit formation.